For your edification, a look back at the phrases, nouns, and neologisms that have, for better or for worse, shaped the week’s national discourse.

Sarah Palin industry [sar-uh pail-uhn in-duhs-tree], noun: The journalists, pundits, and satirists whose livelihood—and cable-news appearances—depends on the public misbehavior of Sarah Palin, the half-term Alaska governor who is not currently running for president.

Model-slash-senator [mah-dul slash sen-it-er], noun: A professional track available to unshorn shirtless gentleman with public-speaking skills and a savvy sense of political timing, for example, Scott Brown of Massachusetts.

Little Rock Nine [lit-uhl rawk nyn], noun: A group of nine black schoolchildren whose contested integration into an all-white Arkansas high school is one of the watershed moments of the Civil Rights movement; the subject of Vanity Fair contributing editor David Margolick’s new book, Elizabeth and Hazel, which focuses on the biographies and relationship of one black student and one white.

Amanda Knox [uh-man-duh nawx], noun: An American student who returned home to Seattle after spending four years in an Italian prison while being tried for the murder of her roommate.

Settling [set-tuh-ling], verb: To come to terms with and accept the undesirable particulars of one’s present situation, such as in the case of a longtime romantic interest or Republican presidential nominee.

Chris Christie [kris kris-tee], noun: The brash governor of New Jersey who announced, for perhaps a final time, that he will not be running for president in 2012.

Arrested Development [uh-rest-ed duh-vel-up-muhnt], noun: A former Fox television show with a cultish following tentatively scheduled to return to the air sometime in the next few millennia.